Pittsylvania County grant to fund 10 new school resource officers
Pittsylvania County VA November 21, 2022 Pittsylvania County signed off on a grant earlier this week to fund 10 more school resource officers.
Now comes the hard part: filling those positions.
The Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office already has nine vacancies in the field, Sheriff Mike Taylor told supervisors at a work session Tuesday in Chatham.
“People are a little hesitant about getting into this business right now, but I’m hopeful,” he said about the 10 new school officers.
With 21 schools in the county, currently there are eight school resource officers, commonly called SROs. Some facilities — like Dan River High and Dan River Middle schools — share an officer because of close proximity.
The grant “period opened very quickly,” said Kim VanDerHyde, director of finance for the county. Taylor said within a week the grant was submitted.
“That was probably the quickest response on an award, I’ve seen,” he said. “It was in a matter of days.”
The Department of Criminal Justice Services grant, which started in October, covers 10 school resource officers. The plan, for now, is to move the eight positions under the grant funding while the county searches for 10 new SROs.
The move wouldn’t eliminate funding already in place for the current officers.
Taylor noted recruiting woes for law enforcement isn’t limited to Pittsylvania County, but a statewide problem.
“We talk about SROs, and the first thing you think about is the safety in the school” of staff and students, Taylor explained to the board. “It goes a little deeper than that.”
First, SROs have to be a Virginia certified officer. Then there’s special training involved. On top of that, there’s another certification needed to recognize mental illnesses.
“It’s more than an SRO standing at the door, standing guard,” he said.
These officers make personal contact with students and sometimes go home with the children to talk to their parents.
SROs also are trained in recognizing gang activity, “which we know we have in our county … from the north end to the south end,” Taylor admitted.
He also said there’s an uptick in mental health issues in the schools, another reason to increase the SROs in the system.
“They recognize when a child is in a crisis, especially in middle school,” Taylor said. “They reach out and touch these children every day.”
In fact, for some students, the safest part of the day is when they are at school, given conditions at home, the sheriff noted.
For the first nine months, the grant covers the full salary of the SROs, which amounts to $475,170 with no local match. For years two through four of the grant, localities must match 25% of the salaries, or about $158,390 per year, unless the salaries rise.
“We all recognize the ask on this,” Taylor said. “It’s a tremendous ask.”
But he also alluded to a meeting when he heard Gov. Glenn Youngkin say his goal was to have an SRO in every school in Virginia.
